Man charged with carjacking medical van

June 19, 2009

A suspected shoplifter who police said carjacked a medical transport van on the Northwest Side was arrested and charged after crashing the van as police caught up with him miles away, police said today.

Timothy Paulsen, 25, of the 3200 block of West Arthington Street was charged this afternoon in the hijacking of the van as he fled security guards from the Sears store at 4730 W. Irving Park Rd. just before 9:30 a.m. Thursday, police said.

Police from the Fugitive Arrest Apprehension Section arrested Paulsen after he crashed the van near the intersection of Waller and West End Avenues about 3 p.m. Thursday, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer JoAnn Taylor.

Paulsen, who also goes by the name Eric Wilson, faces one count of vehicular hijacking, two counts of armed robbery and one count of criminal damage to government property in connection with hitting a parked Chicago police car at some point during the day Thursday, Taylor said.

He was identified by the driver of the van as the carjacker, Taylor said.

Police and staff at Rapid Assurance Medical Transportation, the Chicago owners of the hijacked van, tracked the van throughout the day Thursday.

A Rapid Assurance driver spotted the van in west suburban Broadview--12 miles away from where it was stolen--sometime before the van crashed into a light pole on West End, 6 1/2 miles from Broadview, said Rapid Assurance Vice President Dr. Melanie Proctor.

The saga of the van began just before 9:30 a.m. Thursday when security officers chased the suspected shoplifter out of the Sears store, police said. The suspected shoplifter then fled west and jumped into the driver's seat of a medical transport company van in the 4800 block of Irving Park, across the street from the Sears store.

The driver of the van returned from dropping off a client nearby, and got into the front passenger seat of the van to confront the man, who then pulled a knife, police said.

When the driver got out of the van, the suspected shoplifter then took off with the vehicle, police said.

The van had just finished one of its regularly scheduled stops when the van was stolen, Proctor said. The driver was unhurt, and no company clients were in the van at the time, she said.

The van crashed into the light pole at West End later Thursday afternoon, but it appeared it was heavily damaged and its "tires were shot," not from the crash but by how the carjacker had been driving it throughout the day, Proctor said. "I don't know what he was doing with it."

After the crash, the suspect tried to flee on foot, but was caught by police, Taylor said.

Detectives used a photograph lineup with the driver to identify the man who stolen the van, Proctor said.

Paulsen was expected to appear in Cook County Central Bond Court on Saturday, Taylor said.